Wikipedia is an extraordinarily comprehensive resource, as evidenced by the fascinating Six Degrees of Wikipedia site, which finds links between any page of the online encyclopedia.
You may have heard of the “six degrees of separation” theory. Developed by Hungarian writer and poet Frigyes Karinthy, this principle posits that any person on the globe can be connected to another through a chain of six common knowledges. A site allows you to do the same… but with Wikipedia links.
Automated Wikiracing
The aptly named “Six degrees of Wikipedia” allows you to find the link between two pages which apparently have nothing in common. By digging through all the links on all the Wikipedia entries, the site allows you to see what Elon Musk and compost have in common, for example. The principle is also reminiscent of “Wikiracing” which is based on the same idea.
The operation of the platform is very simple. Enter your start page in the left field and your arrival page in the right field. Let the machine think for a few seconds and you should see a complete graph of the links between the two pages appear. In the previous example, Elon Musk’s Wikipedia entry contains a link to the company Compaq, which contains a link to Apple, which contains a link to the Wikipedia page for compost (within the “environment” section). Between Emmanuel Macron and Kouign-amann, the link is made via the Wikipedia page of Charles de Gaulles, who speaks of Breton language, who speaks of Kouign-amann!
Only available in English
The site does not only offer a single path, but lists all the breadcrumbs that exist between the two pages provided. So, believe it or not, there are 303 paths that connect Elon Musk to compost. All of them are also modeled on the graph offered on the page.
The site was developed by Jacok Wenger, formerly at Google and Microsoft, currently product manager at Shortwave, an AI-powered email software. Unfortunately, the site only works with the English version of Wikipedia, but it is still possible to have fun finding absurd links if you have a minimum command of the language of Shakespeare. For example, did you know that the Age of Enlightenment and the digestion of laundry detergent pods were only two degrees of separation?
Source : Six degrees of Wikipedia
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